Honagalu mara in the Western Ghats

Terminalia paniculata also known as the kindal tree.  A hardworking timber, and scientists are discovering wonderful medicinal properties in the bark.

The forests around Dandeli abound in these tall and magnificent trees, and seemed to be the main tree species around.

The delicate white flowers hummed with insects

And I could not stop admiring them

The fpale white flowers then fruit and seed into reddish brown winged seeds, similar to T Arjuna, bringing a flaming red to a few of the trees we saw.

Rare Dollarbird sighting

Vikas is a young and serious naturalist and MNS member  with whom we have travelled on several birding trips across the country.  I have never seen anyone with the astonishing speed of capturing record shots like Vikas - if he was in the Wild West he would have been known as Velocious (yes there is a word like that) Vikas! - and this ability of his  coupled with his thorough grasp of the bird books, yields some amazing sightings/ rare gaffes and never a dull moment.

I have an easy formula - on any trip my personal bird sightings will be half of his!

Anyway, he has been on the prowl at GNP, and on 26th November spotted a Dollarbird at the Polo ground.  This is what he has to say -

"Words can't express my astonishment when I saw this bird sitting on a tree near Doctors Road. We were trying to find orange breasted green pigeons when I spotted this odd bird. When Rama Aunty and I took pictures we were dazzled that the bird was blue and had a prominent red bull and violet throat.

Hence we went closer to the bird and it flew to a new open perch where I could confirm it to be a Dollar Bird!"

 Photo by Vikas - Eurystomus orientalis

 This bird is usually seen in the Western Ghats in south India, and it is an unusual and rare sighting for Chennai.  I have not seen this bird as yet.  I am quite sure given my poor sighting skills and my rotten sense of timing, I would have missed the pretty bird even if I had been around Vikas!

Hope you have a good time in Chennai, Dollarbird, and the weather suits you and you find a mate and a family soon.

Flamingoes on the wing!

Nov 27th - MNS members reported in of large flocks of flamingoes, flying south to north, along the Chennai coast.  Three large groups were reported.

Luckily Mr Shankarnarayan was on his terrace, and took pictures of these large flocks.

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

On Saturday October 29,2016, a big flock of around 2000 Greater Flamingoes were sighted by MNS member Subbu and his group of three, off ECR and Kelambakkam backwaters around 4 p.m. 

"The first group around 1500 birds were flying North, North-east from our location on ECR towards Tiruvanmiyur/Besant Nagar. They returned and joined another group of 500 birds over Kelambakkam and then flew off south and were not seen again.
A lone injured Flamingo was also observed at a great distance. "

This has been reported in eBird here:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32294702

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32308907

INDIAN CORMORANT AT SHOLINGANALLUR

I have always struggled to differentiate the Indian Cormorant or Shag from the little cormorant. 

These wonderful pictures from Mr Ramanan helped me resolve the difficulties. 

Notice the blue eyes and the smaller head. And the picture below shows the white threat that's restricted to just below the gape. 

Notice also the long narrow bill, which is longer than that of the little cormorant. 

The large cormorant is a visibly bigger bird and with plumage that is more black than the mottled brown black of this one.

The fig tree at the timber depot in Dandeli

Ficus mysorensis - the mysore fig, at the Timber Depot in Dandeli

As with all fig trees, an ecosystem in themselves.

The fruits loved by birds and squirrels, including the hornbills.

I could happily spend hours here.

The yellow fig fruits and the fig wasps 

The story of the fig and its wasp
Posted By Katie Kline on May 20, 2011

Inside the rounded fruit of a fig tree is a maze of flowers. That is, a fig is not actually a fruit; it is an inflorescence—a cluster of many flowers and seeds contained inside a bulbous stem. Because of this unusual arrangement, the seeds—technically the ovaries of the fig—require a specialized pollinator that is adapted to navigate within these confined quarters. Here begins the story of the relationship between figs and fig wasps.
The queen of the fig wasp is almost the perfect size for the job—except, despite her tiny body, she often times will lose her wings and antennae as she enters through a tight opening in the fig. “The only link the fig cavity has to the outside world is through a tiny bract-lined opening at the apex of the fig, called the ostiole, and it is by means of this passage that the pollinating fig wasp gains access to the florets,” as described in Figweb, a site by Iziko Museums of Cape Town.
Once inside, the queen travels within the chamber, depositing her eggs and simultaneously shedding the pollen she carried with her from another fig. This last task, while not the queen’s primary goal, is an important one: She is fertilizing the fig’s ovaries. After the queen has laid her eggs, she dies and is digested by the fig, providing nourishment. Once the queen’s eggs hatch, male and female wasps assume very different roles. They first mate with each other (yes, brothers and sisters), and then the females collect pollen—in some species, actively gathering it in a specialized pouch and in others, accumulating it inadvertently—while the wingless males begin carving a path to the fig’s exterior. This activity is not for their own escape but rather to create an opening for the females to exit. The females will pollinate another fig as queens. The males will spend their entire lifecycle within a single fruit.  Each species of Ficus has a corresponding specialized species of wasp that fertilizes it. 

There's a wonderful video on the Queen Of Trees.

The beautiful squirrel of peninsular India

Ratufa indica - another marvel endemic to India.  We saw these at Dandeli, in the timber depot, at our lodging and in the forests.

Shy and sticking to the upper canopy of large trees, their tails give them away.  More often heard than seen.

A wood spider at Dandeli

Find the giant wood spider in the enormous web that spanned a couple of trees.

Clue:  It is in the middle of the picture with a backdrop of a teak tree trunk.

And it is the female.  The males are tiny and inconspicuous.

You can also find a picture of it at Thattekad and Rishi Valley.  

Sholinganallur through the lens of Mr Ramanan

Sholinganallur in southern Madras is home to wetlands that are an extension of Pallikaranai.  Now known more for being part of the IT corridor, the area is in urgent need of preserving of the remaining grasslands, scrub, water bodies and wetlands.

These are the soak pits and groundwater charging areas for the city and support an important ecosystem.  Here are a few glimpses of that.

A beautiful capture of the conical silver bill, black tail and white breast of the White Throated Munia (Euodice malabarica), by Mr Ramanan.  These birds move around in large flocks and feed on grass seeds found in scrub and grasslands.  They are found usually in the winter months in south India.

A Black Shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris) stares menacingly, just before taking off on its hunt for mice.  Its feet are usually clutch the perch from opposite sides.  These smaller kites live on a diet of mice, and it is amazing to see them hover in the sky as they hunt for lunch, dropping silently and speedily onto their prey.  Photo by Mr Ramanan 

The streaked fantail warbler (Cisticola juncidis) displays its fantail.  I prefer to call them Zitting Cisticola which is apt, as their call is a "zit, zit", as they zip past from reed to reed.  They are easily hard, but difficult to spot through the binoculars as they are always on the move.  Photo by Mr Ramanan

In the lake, Mr Ramanan's lens captured a winter visitor, the black tailed godwit, (Limosa limosa) a large wader, with the characteristic pink bill with the black tip.  The bar-tailed goodwill is more streaked 

Meanwhile on the shores, Mr Ramanan finds the brilliant colours of a yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) in breeding plumage.  The wagtails, well, wag their tails quite incessantly and can be found on the dry periphery of lakes and other water bodies looking for insects.  This one seems to be a male with its olive upper parts.

Another species found in the dry scrub is the ashy-crowned sparrow-lark (Eremopterix griseus).  They look like sparrows.  This is a male with the well marked black collar, while the female is sandy brown.  They have an interesting courtship display with the male kind of shooting up vertically into the air, and then descending also with a whistle.  These are ground birds, foraging for seed and insect and also spending the night on the ground.  We need to leave enough undisturbed ground for these birds to survive and propagate.

The Kulagi Nature Camp

Our station from October 7th to the 11th.  A lovely place.

Nestled among the teak trees, south of Dandeli, is the little village of Kulgi, where the Foret dept has located the Kulgi Nature Camp.                    A delightful set of cottages that unobtrusively  exist, their brown colour and thatched roofs looking like camouflage!

The row of cottages that we occupied.  At the far end, is a large open lunch patio, and a good place to hang out since it has a view across a meadow where herds of chital commonly graze.

Our cottage, with the little verandah we used a lot, and where the cats would linger.

The rooms were clean and neat as also the bathrooms.  Hot water was available all the time at a central boiler from where we could fetch steaming buckets!

A wonderfully real tableau that was part of the Interpretation Centre

There was also a little tribal hut.....

....where a grandma sat with a her grandson

....while the mother churned buttermilk.

No TV, minimal night lighting and the lack of cellular networks meant a really blissful existence for a few days when I lost track of the day of the week and the time of the day.  Well not really time of the day, since we all knew our mealtimes well!

I eagerly awaited the food, with the daily round of podis and the interesting payasams, hot chapatis and fresh vegetables.  And our own Mr Shankarnarayan had a second treat for us from Grand Sweets, at every meal!

Rain!

Kulagi camp. Cottage Shiroli verandah, Oct 10th 2016

Its been so long since I enjoyed the rain, just sitting in a chair, in good company, and watching the rain drops fall, and listening to the constant murmur and the leaves whooshing.

The lovely Slo Mo feature of the iPhone made it even more magical.  All through the day, in my head and on my lips was my childhood song, Listen to the falling rain.

I haven't been able to find the composer, but the version I heard was by Jose Feliciano

Listen to the pouring rain Listen to it run,
And with every drop of rain  You know I love you more
Let it rain all night long, Let my love for you go strong,
As long as we're together Who cares about the weather?
Listen to the falling rain, Listen to it run
, ……. And I'm here among the puddles, You and I together huddle.
Listen to the falling rain, Listen to it fall.

It's raining, It's pouring, The old man is snoring, Went to bad And he bumped his head, And He couldn't get up in the morning,

Listen to the falling rain, listen to the rain

Fluttered by

Junonia lemonias, the lemon pansy

fluttered by our home

“Come, butterfly
It's late-
We've miles to go together.” 
― Bashō Matsuo, 

In my kitchen, Selvi stirs in 
curry leaves...a butterfly
floats and balances
― with apologies to Basho Matsuo,